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Extensive volcanism probably ended on the
Moon about three billion years ago as the number of impacts began to substantially
decrease and the amount of heat-generating radioisotopes significantly
declined (Beatty et al., 1999, p. 138-140). Nevertheless, high-titanium mare
flows may have continued until about one billion years ago (Beatty et al., 1999,
p. 138). Of course, local melting on the Moon is still possible from any
impacts of large meteorites and asteroids.

Young-Earth/Moon creationists (YECs), including Don B.
DeYoung, believe that the Moon is only a few thousand years old and was
literally created by God from "nothing" as supposedly described in Genesis 1:16
of the Bible. Excluding any modern impacts, DeYoung (2003, p. 5) argues
that there is "evidence" of modern eruptions and other volcanic activity on the
Moon ("Transient Lunar Phenomena", TLPs). YECs claim that these supposed TLPs
indicate that the Moon is still "hot" and "young".

For years, people have claimed to have seen unusual
phenomena on the Moon, including volcanic eruptions, mysterious lights and even
bases built by extraterrestrial aliens. DeYoung (2003, p. 6) discusses
some of the reports of "volcanism" that have been recorded over the past 400
years. He (2003, p. 5) argues that any volcanic phenomena on the Moon would
tend to last for only a few hours and would be very difficult to verify.
However, if the Moon is only a few thousand years old, why wouldn't extensive
and long-term Hawaiian-type volcanism still be occurring? The Moon is covered
with igneous rocks, yet how could the Moon be so cold and inactive after only
6,000 years? Obviously, DeYoung and other YECs can only invoke groundless
miracles to explain away this heat problem.

To support his claims for a "young" and
"hot" Moon, DeYoung (2003) places great faith in "eyewitness testimonies" of "lunar
volcanism". Whether these reports are real or based on lies, sunlight mirages,
distortions from the Earth's atmosphere, and/or the result of healthy
imaginations and poorly made optical telescopes can be debated. Nevertheless,
one must remember that Percival Lowell once saw "intelligently built canals" on Mars. Of course, no extensive networks
of artificial canals were found on Mars and they are now recognized as optical
illusions. As any forensic scientist or serious UFO investigator knows,
eyewitness accounts (even with photographs and video tapes) are often
unreliable.

DeYoung (2003, p. 6) notes that the Apollo 15 crew
detected relatively high concentrations of radioactive radon-222 gas near
Aristarchus Crater. Contrary to DeYoung's implication, the presence of radon
gas on the lunar surface is no evidence of recent volcanism. Radon simply
indicates that uranium is present in nearby lunar outcrops or regolith. On
Earth, radon gas is a
threat to home air quality in areas with uranium-enriched soils, sediments
and surface rocks, including sedimentary rocks. Because radon is not restricted
to currently active volcanic areas on Earth, we wouldn't expect the gas to
indicate current volcanism on the Moon either. Indeed, the short half-life of
the gas (only 3.8 days) precludes a deep lunar source.

DeYoung (2003, p. 6) also cites a fairly old reference
(Taylor, 1975, p. 292) and claims that heat flow measurements from the Apollo 15
and 17 missions are surprisingly "high" and "conflict" with an ancient Moon.
Although the Apollo missions only performed a couple of heat flow measurements
and the results are far from definitive, Taylor (1975, p. 292, 294) was
surprised by the results. Nevertheless, Taylor (1975, p. 292, 294) says nothing
about the heat resulting from volcanism. The average heat flow of the Apollo 15
and 17 sites was only 0.02 watts/square meter. In comparison, geothermally
active Wairakei, New Zealand has a heat flow of 1.7 watts/square meter and more
than 2.5 watts/square meter occurs on Jupiter's volcanically active moon, Io
(Beatty et al., 1999, p. 244). Taylor (1975, p. 292, 294) credited the heat
from these lunar measurements to the presence of average concentrations of 0.060
parts of million (ppm) of uranium, 0.16 ppm of thorium, and 120 ppm of
radioactive potassium in Moon rocks. These concentrations are very reasonable.
In comparison, a typical terrestrial diabase (basalt) has even higher
concentrations of uranium (0.6 ppm) and thorium (2.4 ppm) (Krauskopf and Bird,
1995, p. 590). The abundance of radioactive potassium-40 in the Earth's crust
is about 117 ppm (Dalrymple, 1991, p. 92).

CONCLUSIONS

Like many YEC documents, the arguments in DeYoung (2003)
are weak, inappropriate, based on misinterpreted old literature, and largely
depend on hearsay and questionable eyewitness accounts. Certainly, impacts on
the Moon could create local melts or produce dust clouds that might be
misinterpreted by Earth-based observers as eruptions. Although very minor
volcanism on a 4.5 billion year old Moon cannot be ruled out, the physical
properties of the Moon and its history indicates that modern volcanism is
unlikely.